#OA15
1767
First French edition. Octavo, 2 vols. bound in one, [IV], XV, 327 S.;., [IV], 359pp. with 2 folding copper engraved maps. Period elaborately gilt tooled sheep. Corners of the bindings are bumped, otherwise a good copy.
“The Russian Krasheninnikov started out across Siberia with Gerhard Friedrich Mueller and Johann Georg Gmelin, and then made his own way to Kamchatka. When Georg Wilhelm Steller arrived in Kamchatka to supervise his work, Krasheninnikov left in order to avoid becoming Steller’s assistant, and returned to St. Petersburg. Krasheninnikov nonetheless was able to make use of Steller’s notes in the preparation of his own narrative, and the inclusion of Steller’s observations on America, made during his travels with Bering’s second voyage, are an important part of this work, and constitute one of the earliest accounts of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Steller’s account was not published until 1793. This work details the customs, morals, and religion of the Kamchatka peninsula, and discusses the power exercised by the magicians. Also described are the differences between the dialects of the Kamchatkans and those of the Korsairs and of the Kurile islanders. This is the first scientific account of those regions”(Hill 948), (Sabin 38303).
